Cops: Man jumps from third-floor balcony at Mall of Georgia in suicide attempt

Gwinnett County police are investigating what they believe was an attempted suicide in which a man fell from the third-floor balcony at the Mall of Georgia.

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A man who was injured when he fell from the third-floor balcony at the Mall of Georgia on Sunday afternoon was attempting to kill himself.

The man “intentionally went over the railing and fell to the ground floor with the intent of killing himself,” according to the Gwinnett County police report.

The 43-year-old man went to the ticket window of the movie theater inside the mall shortly around 12:45 p.m. and asked for a ticket to a 1 p.m. movie, saying it didn’t matter which movie he saw, according to the police report released Monday.

He had done the same thing around the same time on Saturday, theater employees told police.

According to the surveillance camera footage, the man moved a chair next to the third-floor railing, peered over the railing for about 24 minutes and at one point stood in the chair before sitting back down again, the police report states.

Shortly before 1:15, the man sat on the railing with his feet in the chair, police said. The theater manager spotted the man and approached him while asking him to get down from the railing.

But the man refused and swung his legs over the railing and let go, falling backward to the floor below, the report states.

"It appears while falling, (he) strikes the second floor, breaking off a piece of the marble floor before landing on the ground floor," according to the police report.

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Former police reporter for The State newspaper, Kimathi T. Lewis left her mark in print with stories that evoked community support and a column that helped capture dozens of fugitives. This award-winning reporter with a B.A. in Journalism can be reached at naturekleen@msn.com.